Despite being in the top 6 overall during testing on Friday, Armaan had a bad qualifying session on the Saturday. In the first qualifying session, Armaan pushed too hard in the opening laps without bringing the tyres upto temperature in the very cold track conditions. This resulted in a spin which destroyed the tyres completely. Though Armaan finished with a lap time of 44.8secs which was only half a second of pole, he landed up 18th overall on the grid. This clearly in fdicates how close this championship is in fact the top 20 cars were all within 6 tenths of a second. In all there were 25 cars lined up for the opening round of the championship.

The 2nd qualifying session was even worse as he got hit from behind in the very first lap of the qualifying session and this damaged his rear suspension.

The Brands Hatch Indy circuit is a very short and tight circuit which makes overtaking virtually impossible. With a bad qualifying session, Armaan’s hopes of a top 5 finish overall were destroyed completely.

The race was as predicted with hardly any overtaking and all the cars finished in more or less the same position they qualified in Armaan however made a few good moves to take 2nd place in the Graduate cup and finish 15th overall in the race.

Quoted Armaan : It is disappointing not to finish in the top 5 especially when we were on the pace in testing. However most of the testing was in the wet and the qualifying and the race was in dry conditions and I needed some more time on the circuit in dry conditions to be on top of my game.

Nevertheless 2nd in the Graduate cup is a good start to a very tough and demanding season ahead.

Armaan is presently sponsored by JK Tyres, Amaron for the 2006 Formula Renault UK championship.

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